“Scandals succeed one another, and we continue to see the increase of inequality, of fiscal and social injustices caused mainly by this diversion of resources that could be available for investments in health, education, and infrastructure in many countries, notably the poorest. (…) Transnational corporations, with the help of lawyers, consultants, technicians and experts in the tax area, in the heart of the globalized world and financial deregulation, take advantage of loopholes in the legislation to carry out abusive, rather dubious (and reprehensible) tax planning and send resources to these tax havens”.

Wayne Swan, former treasurer and deputy prime minister of Australia and a member of ICRICT, published an op-ed in the Guardian, titled “For us to tackle climate change, companies need to pay their tax”. “Less fiscal revenue means less money for vital infrastructure and less money to prepare for the effects of natural disasters”, Swan says. “It is a huge challenge for rich countries and for developing nations, a sisyphean task: how to collect enough revenue to respond to major catastrophes, while at the same time trying to lift billions of people out of poverty? (…) At an average of 17.6% of GDP, tax collection in the Asia-Pacific region is among the lowest in the world, a level regarded by experts as totally insufficient to achieve sustainable development goals. And with big companies paying less and less taxes, most governments have the same answer: austerity”. This editorial is now also available in French and Spanish:

ICRICT’s Belén Saldívar was also interviewed in Mexican daily newspaper El Economista, about the lack of progress since the #ParadisePapers: “Alert: Of the world GDP, 10% are in tax havens” (“Del PIB mundial, 10% está en paraísos fiscales, alertan”), the paper titles, adding “An international tax commission warned of the need for international agencies to coordinate to address this problem”.

Eurodad’s Olivia Lally’s blog titled “Paradise Lost: EU governments blocking transparency one year after Paradise Papers” stated “The secrecy scandal has not been treated with the urgency and political ambition that this multi-billion euro scandal deserves. Many European Union (EU) governments are still more focused on protecting their multinational corporations and financial service industries than cooperating to solve the problem. The good news, however, is that a solution has been found and is already on the table. In fact, EU governments have the opportunity to make progress on this front. But instead they are blocking efforts towards creating greater transparency. The solution is clear, but EU governments aren’t taking action.”

In Finland, Kepa (now Fingo) took the occasion of being interviewed by the Government about the implementation of the Anti-Tax Avoidance Directive to publish a blog, by Outi Hakkarainen, which was published on Kepa’s site as well as on Pro Ethical Trade Finland (Eetti)’s web: “The #ParadisePapers disclosures, Hakkarainen says, prompted political leaders to condemn tax evasion and promise improvements, but most of the problems are still pending. As far as large companies are concerned, the situation has remained largely unchanged”.